Spider-Verse: A Tangled Web we Weave
by shanejayell
Summary: Set just after Spider-Verse. Olivia Octavius deals with the aftermath...
1. 1

Note: This has SPOILERS for Into the Spider-Verse. If you have not seen the film, you should probably hit the back button. RIGHT NOW. Thank you!

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

A Tangled Web we Weave

Wilson Fisk sat at his desk in Fisk Tower, staring calmly at the woman sitting opposite him. "So," he asked calmly, "why didn't you tell me that people from other dimensions coming here would painfully glitch out then die?"

"Ah," Olivia Octavius said quietly as he frowned down at her. "How did you find out about that?" she asked.

"On the security footage when you were talking to the older Spider-Man in your lab," Wilson said impatiently.

Realizing he was getting annoyed Olivia tensed, knowing he could be over the desk with his hands on her throat in a moment. She quickly added, "Yes, I was aware. Part of why I wanted to study the alternate Spider Man was to try to deal with that. I was fairly confident we could align a subject's atoms to our dimension, given time."

Wilson sat back, apparently accepting that explaination. "I called you here to let you know that we will not be rebuilding the super collider," he told her.

"But..!" Olivia started.

Wilson held up a hand, "We will NOT be cancelling your research at Alchemax, and I will maintain your base funding. I think there is still potential in the research. But the Collider itself is too public right now."

Olivia had to concede that. "Thank you sir," she said meekly.

"Is there anything else?" Wilson asked tiredly.

"We should offer to pay to repair May Parker's home," Olivia suggested quietly. The widowed aunt of their Spider-Man's house had been caught up in a battle between Fisk's men and the group of alternate universe Spiders.

Wilson just LOOKED at her blankly.

"It will bolster your image as a good samaritan to the public," Olivia quickly pointed out, "AND it will make the City's case against you weaker with you going out of your way to help your supposed 'arch enemy's' Aunt." She shrugged, "It's a win win."

Wilson looked at her thoughtfully, then he nodded slightly. "I'll look into it," he said.

The meeting concluded, and Olivia fled knowing that she was lucky to have escaped the man with her life.

After she left Wilson Fisk sighed softly. He was free on bail, and he was confident that the charges filed against him wouldn't stick.

While having the Super Collider beneath his building was damming, as well as it being staffed by his Alchemax employees, Wilson had taken precautions. None of the money for construction or staff could be traced to him, just to shell companies. His being caught on site could be dismissed as his finding out about the illegal operations and trying to stop it. All quite respectable.

The only annoyance was a police officer observing him fighting Spider Man, but again... that could be written off as him attempting to stop an intruder. Really, Wilson expected there to be no long term effects from this failed operation.

"Mr Fisk," his secretary called over the intercom, "your appointment is here."

The older man entered, looking around warily. "Mr Fisk? I understand you were looking into funding certain kinds of research?" he asked.

"Mr Miles Warren, yes?" Wilson smiled, "I understand you're developing improved cloning technology..."

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Olivia Octavius returned to her lab, collapsing tiredly into a comfy office chair. She had maintained a confident appearance in front of Mr Fisk, but she hurt all over. Battling multiple Spider-Men was bad enough, but she had been hit by a BUS! Thank goodness her 'Octopus' rig had automatic impact reducing subroutines, or she might have been a goner.

A replacement PC and new monitor had been delivered and set up while she had been away. One upside to her stuff getting stolen: she got a PC upgrade out of it. She opened up her browser and went to work downloading the various apps and widgets she liked on her desktop, even as she let the events of the past few days brew in the back of her mind.

Their Spider Man was twenty six or so.

(Poor bastard. He had just had the bad luck of running into the Goblin guarding the Collider. If that stupid Norman hadn't jumped him, who knows how things might have played out?)

The Spider-kid looked like he was also native to 'their' universe. The Spider Woman was also about the same age range. But the black clad Spider was older judging by his voice and manerisms, as was the 'other' Spider Man she had questioned in the lab. And the strange girl in the Spider Mech was clearly from a future era.

Olivia was arranging the downloaded apps she used, as she let the data compile in the back of her head. She frowned slightly as she checked if the computer clock matched up to her phone display, then froze as it hit her all of a sudden.

"TIME," Olivia hissed. TIME TRAVEL. She kept herself from saying that out loud, knowing the room was monitored by security camera.

There was clearly a temporal factor at work in the travelling across dimensions! With the right refinement, you could use their technology to travel through time!

Olivia KNEW she couldn't tell Mr Fisk about this yet. She was certain that if she did he'd immediately start pushing her to build a time machine, then send someone to the past to try to save his wife and son. At this point she only had limited practical evidence that the phenominon was even happening. Using the collider to access other times was only a theory for now.

Not to mention the whole issue of temporal paradoxes. Could you send someone back in time, change a pass event, and eliminate WHY you sent them back there in the first place? Mind you, if she COULD prove it one way or another they'd have to make a new science prize, just for her.

There was only one problem. "I need the collider data...," Olivia sighed.

The earlier data runs were all stored at Alchemax' labs. But the crucial one where their Spider-man had interacted with the collider and apparently summoned alternates were all in her old PC. Any other back ups had been destroyed with the collider itself.

Oivia sat back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling pensively.

There was no good reason for the Spider People to destroy her old PC, so hopefully the data was still there, intact. But retrieving it was the problem. Launching a raid against Spider Man's old base was vaguely feasable, but in any practical way was a bad idea. The first time, they had been lucky and caught the big guns off guard. If they tried it again, the Ultimates might come calling.

Well, there was one other way...

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Well, that's a thing," Miles Morales noted as they watched construction crews employed by Fisk repair the home's outside damage.

"I'm still not terribly sure this is a good idea, but...," May Parker shrugged, the older woman standing beside the young boy.

"Hmm," Miles nodded. He certainly understood morally ambiguous situations, after finding out his uncle had been the Prowler. "You're going to have to sweep it for bugs after," he added wryly.

"Ha," May smiled wryly, "I was doing that before, too."

"Can I ask a personal question?" Miles asked hesitantly.

"Certainly. I won't promise to answer though," May noted.

"You seemed to know Doc Ock," Miles said hesitantly, "how did that happen?"

"Well, Doc was rampaging around the city, picked me up in a tentacle and somehow we hit it off," May said cheerfully.

Miles looked at her blankly, "What."

"Joking, joking," May smiled.

"Whew," Miles laughed. "So what...?"

"After Peter moved out, I put his things in storage and rented a room for students, usually," May explained. "Room and meals, etc etc for a extra charge. And Olivia ended up staying with me awhile." She smiled wryly, "She's really a living 'absent minded scientist' so I had to take care of her more than usual. So we got to be friends."

"Ah," Miles nodded.

After Miles left May relaxed, sitting on a nearby park bench as she watched them work. Then she blinked as she saw a familiar figure walking up to her. "Speak of the devil...," she muttered.

"Devil? Really?" Olivia pouted as she sat down by May on the bench.

"You've looked better," May noted, hiding her concern behind mild snark. She looked like she had been beaten.

"I got hit by a bus. So sue me," Olivia said dryly. She paused, then sighed. "I'm truly sorry about the attack on your house," she said quietly, "I didn't even know we were coming here until the last minute. If I had known, I would have... done SOMETHING."

May looked over at Olivia in surprise, seeing the truly pained look on the other woman's face. "Thanks, Liv," she said, patting her arm.

"Admittedly, that comes out kind of hollow considering my joining in on the attack, but...," Olivia shrugged, but still felt touched May had called her Liv.

"Considering what happened to Prowler after he crossed Fisk, I'm not sure you had that much choice," May noted.

Liv made a pained face, but nodded slightly. "Now I'm going to totally undermine all that by asking a favour," she said abruptly.

May looked amused, "Oh?"

"Can I get my computer back, please?" Liv asked, clutching her hands in front of her and batting her eyes.

May had to bite back a laugh. "Will you promise you won't use it to break space-time again?" she asked dryly.

"I promise," Liv held up her hand with a serious look on her face.

May wasn't entirely sure of her sincerity, but the computer was Alchemax property. She, in theory, could try to send the cops after her. "I'll FEDEX it to you under another name," May decided. "Have someone at your office ready to sign for it..."

"Thank you!" Liv impulsively hugged her.

To be continued...?

Notes: The movie doesn't address Olivia not telling Wilson about the glitching problem. My thought was she was confident she could fix it... Yes, that's Miles Warren aka The Jackal, a long time Spider Man villain who used clones. I am assuming the movie is set in the wider 'Ultimate Universe' with their Avengers-like group called the Ultimates.

My basic assumption is that Olivia has NOT been all that active as Doc Ock yet. She's basically a well known physicist who's considered okay to lecture high school students. So either she hasn't done the villain stuff much yet, or she's been very successful in keeping her ID secret. In the comics the first Doc Ock built the arm rig to operate multiple devices at once, so I could see Olivia doing the same...


	2. No Capes?

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

A Tangled Web we Weave: 1.5

"Why no capes?" Miles asked.

"Hmm?" May looked at him curiously.

"The older Peter really had a thing about Spider Man not wearing a cape," Miles explained.

May nodded slightly. "When Peter started out, he didn't plan on being a hero. He wanted to use his powers as a preformer."

Miles nodded attentively.

"His 'stage' outfit had a cape, you see. Anyway," May sighed, "he was leaving a show when a criminal ran by. Peter didn't stop him, thinking it wasn't his problem. Later on, the man killed someone in a failed robbery."

"Oh wow," Miles winced.

May didn't mention it had been Peter's uncle who had died. There didn't seem much point. "So after that, I don't think he ever wore the cape outfit again," she said, "and I expect something similar happened with the other Peter."

"I'm sorry," Miles said quietly.

"You didn't know," she patted his arm.

To be continued...

Notes: In some versions of Spider-Man's origin, he wore a cape as an added accessory with his wrestling gear. It seemed a neat reason why he's against capes if he was wearing one when he let the robber run by him.

Of course, comics wise capes have never really been a 'thing' at Marvel anyway. The only major hero I can think of who regularly had a cape was Thor.

This WAS going to be a bit in a much longer chapter, but it's not working out. Will likely re-write the rest and start over, basically...


	3. 2

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

A Tangled Web we Weave: Two

Tombstone was strung up in webbing, the albino mobster struggling weakly to break free. As he had only normal human strength, he wasn't having much luck. Worse, he was suspended upside down and his tie kept flapping in his face.

Spider-man hung from a web nearby, looking at the crook curiously. "So your gimmick is... you're an albino. That's it?" he asked.

"You little..." Tombstone growled.

"Oh. And you shoot people," Spider-man added wryly.

Tombstone made another incoherently angry noise.

(In addition to working for Kingpin, he had maintained a stake in several gangs in New York. He had heard about Spider-man stopping several dealers working for him, and had decided to take steps. Turns out that was NOT a good idea.)

"Well, I called the cops, and I'm sure the evidence I stuck to your back should help them out," Spider-man added cheerfully. "Have a good night," he swung off.

"I hate kids...," Tombstone muttered. He sighed, thinking, 'Mr Fisk is NOT going to be happy about this.'

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The coffee shop wasn't that far from the Academy, and Miles and May met up there off and on. In the weeks following Miles getting powers, he and May had developed a 'mentor and student' sort of relationship. May had helped raise Peter, and had gone through similar stuff to what Miles was going through. Plus, it kept her mind off what happened to Peter, somewhat.

May was, subtly, also urging Miles to tell his parents about his being Spider-Man. He was understandably nervous about the idea. His father was a cop who had disapproved of the hero, so Miles wasn't sure how he'd take it. His mother seemed less of a risk on the issue.

"Patrol went well?" May asked curiously.

"Still basically quiet. I think Kingpin is ordering his guys to lay low until the heat from the collider mess dies down," Miles noted.

"Probably," May agreed.

Of course, the police were trying to get various charges to stick for Fisk, but he had very good and high priced lawyers. As well, he had cleverly made sure that there were no direct connections between him and the building or funding of the collider. It was looking increasingly doubtful they were going to nail him.

"I was listening to the police scanner. Two robberies and an assault stopped is 'quiet'?" May teased him. "And nabbing Tombstone?"

"Yeah, well," Miles looked sheepish.

May just laughed. "Be careful," she reminded him. Neither of them brought up what happened to Peter, but they didn't need to.

"I will," Miles reassured her.

"Here," May passed him the web cartridges, "refills. Let me know if you run low."

Miles put them away. "Does it cost much to make the web fluid?" he asked quietly, "I could pitch in with my allowance."

May actually looked amused. "The money is still coming in from all that licensing Peter did," she revealed, "it's not an issue."

"Thank you," Miles said a bit sheepishly.

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"May! I need COFFEE!" the door slammed open later that day.

May looked in amusement as Lix Octavius staggered in and sat at her table. "You can't get good coffee at work?" she asked as she poured.

"Have you TRIED cafeteria coffee?" Liv asked.

"Okay, that's true," May conceded as she set their cups down and sat across from Liv at her cozy kitchen table.

Miles, amusingly, knew about her re-connecting with Liv after everything that happened. He was a bit disturbed by the situation, but conceded that Liv had never tried to hurt May, specifically. So he was basically staying out of it.

"Uhm... does Fisk know you're coming here? I don't want our friendship putting you in danger," May noted.

"He knows. He thinks I'm keeping an eye on you as well as casing a potential enemy," Liv noted wryly.

"Ha," May smiled.

Liv sipped her coffee, sighing happily. "I missed this," she mused. She looked up at May, "I only moved out of here because I knew Alchemax would do deep background checks on me once they hired me. I didn't want them digging into you."

May looked at her in surprise, "Seriously?"

Liv shrugged. "I would never have moved out of here otherwise," she said.

"Thank you," May noted quietly.

Liv actually blushed a little.

May smiled to herself as she god out some cookies she had made earlier. She had missed this...

"Ooh, yum," Liz beamed.

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Miles! How's it going?" his mother Rio asked cheerfully over the phone.

Miles sat back at his desk in his dorm room, "Oh, not bad. School's going well."

Thankfully, he thought he was settling into school better. After all the 'Spider-man' stuff, it was really hard to worry so much about academics.

"You'll be back on the weekend, and I'm making your favorites," Rio gushed.

"I'm looking forward to it," Miles agreed.

Rio paused, "Oh, your father wants to say hi."

Jefferson came on, his voice amused as he said, "Staying out of trouble, Miles?"

Miles was really wondering if his dad knew he was Spider-man. Impulsively hugging his father after the collider incident was, looking back at it, not the best idea he'd had.

"Would I do that?" Miles joked.

There was a LONG beat of dead silence.

"Oh gee thanks," Miles laughed.

Jefferson sounded amused, "Let me know if you see Spider-Man, too. I heard he swings around Visions often, I have several co-workers who'd like his autograph."

"I'll keep a eye out," Miles promised a bit dubiously.

They chatted a bit longer, then hung up. Miles sat back, as his roommate looked on in obvious amusement.

"Your dad TOTALLY thinks you're Spider-Man," Ganke noted.

"Oh shut up," Miles sighed.

Ganke just laughed. "Did you decide to look up Gwen in this universe?" he asked curiously.

Like any modern teen, Miles had grown up with the internet as a resource. After all the Collider mess wound down, he had googled 'Gwen Stacy' out of curiosity. It turned out there was a Gwen here, and her facebook photo even kind of looked similar. And she had been friends with both Peter Parker and Mary Jane, too...

"I think it'd be weird and stalker-ish though," Miles admitted. "Plus, we can guess she had a different life than the other Gwen, too. They're different people, really."

"Fair," Ganke admitted.

To be continued...

Notes: I am still assuming this is BASICALLY the Ultimate comics universe. Just FYI.

Ultimate-universe Gwen Stacy had some weird shit happen to her. Including getting killed, reborn as part of the Carnage symbiote, and getting seperated out and recovering. So she'd probably be different than Spider-Gwen.

I'm thinking Aunt May and MJ were Peter's joint heirs. As May seemed more involved with the Spider stuff, I'm assuming she'll keep dealing with that stuff. As well as the 'Spider Cave.'


	4. 3

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

A Tangled Web we Weave: Villains

New York based Oscorp was, on paper, a seperate company but functionally Wilson Fisk and Alchemax owned it all. It had been a moderately successful biomedical company before Norman Osborn staked the company's reputation on replicating the Super Soldier Serum. It failed, their stock crashed and Norman accidentally became the Green Goblin.

The lab was under an 'abandoned' Oscorp building, with full facilities. A containment tank was in the middle of the lab, where the currently inert Green Goblin floated. He was nearly as huge as the Hulk, and massive bat-like wings sprouted from his back.

"So... is he dead?" Wilson Fisk asked his chief biological scientist.

Miles Warren shrugged slightly, "We don't know."

"That's not a helpful answer," Wilson frowned.

"We still don't fully understand what the Goblin Serum did to him," Miles Warren admitted. He took off his glasses and rubbed tired eyes before putting them back on as he continued, "He's come back from what was assumed to be actual 'death' twice now. He may revive after this, he may not. We don't really know."

Wilson grunted, but couldn't really argue the point. Around them techs monitored the body, worked up samples as well as worked on other projects.

Trying to appease his boss Miles Warren added, "Thank you for the new cloning lab. I've already begun sampling tests..."

"Keep me informed." Wilson really didn't want the details. He just wanted to get his wife and child back...

Leaving Miles to his work Wilson left the lab, then met his assistant upstairs. "Mr Fisk," Caterina nodded, "back to the tower?" The slim, brown haired woman was pretty, with sharp, angular eyes. She was his 'fixer' who handled various administrative tasks for him.

"Please," Wilson nodded as he got into the back, the woman sitting beside him as the driver started the car.

Caterina brought up the privacy screen, to make sure the driver couldn't hear. "I have updates on the 'talent' we were scouting," she noted.

"Any luck?" Wilson asked.

"Some," Caterina used her tablet to bring up the files as she said, "as you know, SHIELD is still cracking down on deliberate superhuman biological experimentation, but we've been able to contact a few operatives."

Wilson sighed. Yes, he needed new enforcers... Scorpion had severe damage to his cybernetics. It was fixable, but would take time. Prowler was dead, though Wilson was certain he could find another agent to wear the suit. And Liv Octavius had never been eager to be a field agent.

"Kraven the Hunter," Caterina said, "was in SHIELD custody due to illegal biological augmentation. Ironically, the ACLU helped spring him."

"He fought the other Spider-man and lost, correct?" Wilson frowned.

"Kraven might do better against the new kid," Caterina noted.

"True. At least he might be a distraction," Wilson admitted.

A image of a figure in insect like armor. "The Beatle," Caterina noted as she explained, "they were formerly an agent for Doctor Doom. After Doom's death, they went freelance. Armor allows flight, enhanced strength."

"Hmm. Would Iron Man come after them?" Wilson wondered aloud, knowing the hero had hunted dow foes using his tech.

"He's left him alone so far," Caterina shrugged. "And if Stark does, we can simply cut ties with them." she said reasonably.

"Fair enough," Wilson agreed.

"You are familiar with Electro, of course," Caterina brought up another file. "We've secured his release from SHIELD in exchange for service."

"Max Dillon is also a chronic loser," Wilson noted dryly. "Still... we need men," he conceded. "Any word on the other candidates?" he asked.

"Not yet, though Scorpion should be field ready again soon," Caterina noted.

They reached Fisk Tower, and the two headed in. "Take Octavius off the list of field agents," Wilson said as they took the elevator up.

"Understood. Will that be a problem?" Caterina asked.

"No, we've mostly relied on her as a scientist," Wilson said. "Besides, we could have another agent wear the arm rig," he added.

Caterina made a note to look into minions to do that, possibly. Once they were in Wilsion's bug proof, sound proof offices she added, "Should we consider a sanction order?"

There was, of course, a difference between employing superhuman operatives and assassins. While Wilson would, at times, order steps to be taken, in general he didn't want his enforcers to go out killing people. It was bad for business. He had, for awhile, the assassin Elektra on staff, which made him realize that when you suddenly had a good hammer, everyone started to look like nails...

"No. We were lucky to avoid fallout from the last Spider-Man's death," Wilson noted as he sat down at his desk.

"Mr Tombstone is not happy with his being confined at home," Caterina changed the subject, sitting in a comfy chair in front of him.

Wilson gave her a look, "He's lucky he's not in jail." He sipped a glass of water as he mentally added, 'Or just cut loose. His getting caught helping his gang was stupid.'

"Understood," Caterina said but added, "however I feel it's certain he will bust out eventually, if only due to boredom."

Wilson hid a sigh. Part of him was tempted to just sanction Tombstone... he knew too much at this stage, which put Wilson in the unpleasant position of having to keep bailing him out. Still, he was useful to have around...

"We still have the Prowler uniform, correct?" Wilson asked as an idea occurred to him.

"Yes sir," Caterina confirmed.

"Courier that over to him. If he has to break confinement, do it in disguise," Wilson said.

They finished up their business, then Wilson sat back with a sigh. On the corner of his desk was a picture of his wife and son, taken not long before they died. He touched the frame, a very tender gesture, then he went back to work.

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Liv Octavius was beginning to think she was wrong about the time travel thing. Which was annoying. She HATED being wrong.

About a week ago Liv's old computer arrived at Alchemax safe and sound. Fedex! When you need it shipped on time, safely! She hooked it up to a self contained system (Who knew if those Spider-People had loaded a virus on it? Why take chances.) and after running anti-virus programs, successfully extracted the collider data.

But digging through the data... it was looking like what was happening was a difference in relative progress in time in each dimension. So over in one universe despite it being 'now' it was ALSO 1940s and there were Nazis were running around. And in another 'now' was the late 21st century and there were mecha.

Mind you, there were STILL huge possibilities in all this. If they could find an 'advanced' universe they could attempt to visit, get samples of the tech, and bring it home for huge profit. The issue, of course, was figuring out how to bridge universes without a collider.

The problem, in a nutshell, was it took incredible amounts of power to open the initial 'gate.' Hence their needing the Collider to do it. Once passage between dimensions happened it should be easier to do a second trip, but again it was all theory. Too bad none of the 'Spider People' had stuck around for further tests...

"Argh," Liv sighed, taking off her glasses a moment and rubbing her eyes. It was getting late, and she was tired.

Liv also remembered she hadn't really thanked May for sending her computer back. (YES, it was also stolen out of her lab. Still.) She should do something for her.

Struck by inspiration, Liv picked up the phone. "Hey, May... want to go out to that nice cafe up the street?" she invited cheerfully.

Liv was, of course, unaware that May would end up looking at this as a 'date'...

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Caterina finished her work day, then closed down her computer. Her tablet was locked up, and she left with her work smartphone. It was encrypted, illegally, and gave Mr Fisk the ability to reach her at any time.

Her 'home' was a nice apartment, not far from Fisk Tower. She dropped her briefcase by the door, then put her phone of a table. She stripped, then jumped in the shower. A few moments later, in a fuzzy bathrobe she dried her hair as she went back to where she dropped her phone.

The box she dropped the phone in was designed to block att transmissions. No calls in or out. Then she took a device and swept the room for bugs, as she did every night. Only when she was sure her place was clean did she call on a older style flip-phone.

"Fury?" she waited, gave a pre-determined code then continued, "this is Agent Jessica Drew, reporting in..."

To be continued...

Notes: Still basically using the Ultimate Universe backgrounds. Interestingly, in the Ultimate line, getting superpowers artificially was only OK on a government level. So you could have a Captain America, but a character like Electro would automatically be illegal.

Also in the Ultimate Spiderman comic, Electro once got defeated by Aunt May. I might use that.

"Your ARCH ENEMY is an old lady?!"

"Oh shut up! I don't feel too manly about it either! But revenge WILL BE MINE!"

And yes, short update.


End file.
